I seriously doubt Border really cares. Likely the Australians just see it as a useful sledging tactic to get under England's skin and piss them off.

I don't rate their chances. KP and Trott are really not the types to be bothered by that sort of crap. Neither are the basically-English Saffers (Prior and Strauss). I can't see this being a particularly great Aussie team when it comes to sledging. They don't have the results, the aura or the ability to back it up, and they mostly seem a pretty inoffensive bunch, Chimpy excepted, but even he has mellowed considerably in recent years.

I don't rate their chances. Strauss and Trott are really not the types to be bothered by that sort of crap. Prior's probably similar. I can't see this being a particularly great Aussie team when it comes to sledging. They don't have the results or the aura to back it up, and they mostly seem a pretty inoffensive bunch, Chimpy excepted, but even he has mellowed considerably in recent years.

Can't help but agree, Alistair Cook or Steve Finn might be a bit nervy but that's about it. No doubt the Aussies will try though.

I will also resist the urge to murder everyone and everything when someone uses the word "aura".

Originally Posted by harsh.ag

Moeen killing it. Johnson's being thrashed. Poms going wild. A lady knitting on one of the upper seats.

"The PFA does not represent players when they have broken the law and been convicted on non-football matters."- Gordon Taylor in 2009 following Marlon King's release after a prison sentence for sexual assault & ABH

It mostly consists of the same regurgitated mutterings of confusion from the Aussies and good preparations from England.

The headline wildly claims "This is Australia's worst side for 30 years". Then the article says no such thing, only points out that the said rumours of poor planning from Australia are reminiscent of the Packer days.

But possibly the most spurious point it engages in is judging the health of Aussie cricket by how many of the first team are playing county cricket, compared to ten years ago. Ignoring that this says much more about the counties than Australia, he claims that:

"Not only that, they had about 10 players who could not even get in the team who would have been picked up as well. Look at Australia now and there are not many players in the team that the counties would be scrambling over each other to sign up for a season, let alone 10 more from outside the squad."

No, it's not like the first-choice Test lineup were actually playing internationals this summer, while the fringe players like David Hussey, Brad Hodge, Andrew McDonald, Dirk Nannes, Mark Cosgrove, Chris Rogers, Shaun Tait etc were playing for their counties.